A Blue Christmas for Retail Stocks

Retail companies scored a strong start to the holiday selling season but their shares may deliver a lump of coal.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the start to the Christmas shopping season, was indeed a winner this year for retailers. However, the actions of retail stocks tell a different story. Since November 23, retail stocks have underperformed the broad stock market and that does not bode well for them.

There are many ways to track the very diverse retail sector. Let's start with the SPDR Standard & Poor's retail exchange-traded fund (ticker: XRT). On November 28, three trading days after Black Friday, this ETF...